weatherHYDE

weatherHYDE reports: [edited]

billionBricks is a Singapore based non-profit design and innovation studio providing shelter and infrastructure solutions for the homeless and vulnerable.

[WeatherHyde is] a life saving fully insulated, lightweight emergency kit that provides maximum privacy and protects the homeless and vulnerable from extreme weather. The only reversible tent that protects in both winter and summer, it is woman friendly and enables a single person, tool-less installation within 15 minutes and does not need any anchoring.

weatherHYDE has been awarded the Iron A' Design Award in the category of Social Design in 2016 by the grand jury panel of the A’ Design Award & Competition which consists of internationally influential press members, established designers, leading academics and prominent entrepreneurs.
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Somerset to London, 28-12-16

Bring Back That Leroy Brown [2011 Remaster] - Queen
Black Or White - Michael Jackson
Mary of the 4th Form - The Boomtown Rats
Two Hearts (2016 Remastered) - Phil Collins
Here Comes Summer - The Undertones
Two Doors Down - Mystery Jets
Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
He's Gonna Step On You Again - John Kongos
The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
The Golden Path (ft wayne coyne) - The Chemical Brothers
This Is the Remix - Girl Talk
Hey Ruby, Shut Your Mouth - Ruby and The Party Gang
Brændt - Lis Sørensen
Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson
Too Young - Phoenix
Gasoline - The Airborne Toxic Event
You Got The Dirtee Love, feat. Dizzee Rascal - Florence + The Machine
Bagboy - Pixies
Stuck On Repeat (Edit) - Little Boots
Bruises - Chairlift
It's A Sin - Pet Shop Boys
King Creole - Elvis Presley
Try - Nelly Furtado
You & I (feat. Shara) - Ellusive & Telykast
Just Like Paradise - David Lee Roth
What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club
Eyes Without A Face - Billy Idol
In The Air Tonight (2015 Remastered) - Phil Collins
Electric - Melody Club
Standing In The Shadows Of Love - The Four Tops
Bad - Michael Jackson
City Of Blinding Lights - U2
Best of Friends - Palma Violets
One More Night (Cutmore Club Mix) - Maroon 5
Good Night Moon - Shivaree
Kiss With A Fist - Florence + The Machine
That's Not My Name (LA Riots Remix) - The Ting Tings
Easy Lover - Phil Collins & Phil Bailey
One Nation Under a Groove - George Clinton/Funkadelic
My Pretty One - Cliff Richard
Break Away - The Beach Boys
TVC 15 - David Bowie
I Wanna Prove to You - The Lemon Twigs
Hammer To Fall [2011 Remaster] - Queen
Common People - William Shatner
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London to Somerset, 26-12-16

What Have I Done To Deserve This? - Pet Shop Boys
Boom! Shake the Room - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Frozen - Tegan and Sara
You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins
Sigourney Weaver - John Grant
Lady Marmalade - Labelle
There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis - Kirsty MacColl
O.N.E - Yeasayer
Inhaler - Foals
Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) - Pet Shop Boys
Tilted - Christine and the Queens
Birmingham Blues - Electric Light Orchestra
Suburbia - Pet Shop Boys
Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
Rolling In The Deep [Explicit] - Adele
Rhythm Is a Dancer - Snap!
Hey Mama, Close to Me, For Your Love - Black Eyed Peas vs the Cure vs The Zombies
She's a Rainbow (Radio Edit) - World Of Twist
Chinese Rocks - Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
Get What You Want - Operator Please
Friday On My Mind - The Easybeats
Going Under - Evanescence
Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
Apache - Micheal Viners Incredible Bongo Band
When The Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston
My My My - Armand Van Helman
On Your Radio (Radio) - Richard Lanham
Green Light (Radio Edit) - Roll Deep
Save The Last Dance For Me - The Drifters
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul
Superstar - Aeroplane
Pop Culture - Madeon
Hold on to Love - Peter Skellern
Testify (feat. Crystal Waters) - Hifi Sean
Use It Up And Wear It Out - Odyssey
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough - Manic Street Preachers
Sussudio (2016 Remastered) - Phil Collins
These Boots Are Made For Walking - Nancy Sinatra
Private Idaho - The B-52's
High Horse - The Jim Jones Revue
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Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Review

Digital Photography Review have published a full review of Olympus' flagship Micro Four Third camera.

Snippets from the conclusion follow:

"The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II is befitting of the term 'flagship,' and performs every bit as quickly as such a title implies - and it should, given the $2000 MSRP (body-only). In terms of outright speed, the E-M1 II is unmatched in the world of Micro Four Thirds cameras, and gives many higher-specced cameras with larger sensors a run for their money. But the fact remains, the sensor in the E-M1 II is only a quarter of the size of a full-frame, 35mm-sized sensor, and you can purchase a camera with one of those larger sensors for less money."

"The E-M1 II's build quality is top-of-class. The body is made of aluminium and magnesium alloys and feels sturdy. Everything is weather-sealed and the camera proved itself in the continuous rain and cold weather in Iceland."

"Ergonomics are about as good as its gets. The grip is just right, allowing for one-handed shooting with lighter lenses, and the front and rear dials are perfectly placed. The camera is a customisable to the point where it's over-the-top. Twelve buttons and dials can have their function changed, with separate settings for still and video shooting."

"Its biggest feature is undoubtedly its in-body 5-axis image stabilisation. It can reduce shake by a claimed 5.5 stops. We've been able to take handheld 2 second exposures."
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Neural Network-based Image Colorization

Satoshi Iizuka, Edgar Simo-Serra & Hiroshi Ishikawa report: [edited]

We provide a service that uses AI to automatically colorize black and white images based on "Let there be Color!: Joint End-to-end Learning of Global and Local Image Priors for Automatic Image Colorization with Simultaneous Classification" Iizuka and Simo-Serra et al. SIGGRAPH 2016.

[Here's some I made up earlier, Ed.]

Thanks to Brook Jordan for the link.
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'Conventional' Digital Camera Sales Plummeting

Statista reports: [edited]

“The best camera is the one that’s with you”. This phrase, attributed to photographer Chase Jarvis, explains the impact that smartphone cameras are making on the world of photography. The cameras built into our phones may still be inferior to dedicated digital cameras, but they keep improving and have the advantage of being part of an item that we already carry around with us.

When the first touchscreen smartphones arrived in 2007 and 2008 members of the CIPA, an association of the world’s camera makers, shipped almost 120 million digital cameras.

In 2015, CIPA members shipped 35.4 million digital cameras, down more than 70 percent from peak sales in 2010 – the year that Instagram was launched.
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Google Music Using Big Data To Build Playlists

Wired reports: [edited]

Google knows where you are, what you’re doing, what you’re thinking and watching and searching for and chatting with your friends about. Which means nobody should be better equipped to soundtrack every second of your life than Google Play Music. The company’s taking advantage of its smarts to deliver you the sounds [it thinks ed.] you want.

Next time you open Google Play Music on any device, the first thing you’ll see is a list of playlists you might like, plus a short description for why the app made any given selection. It’s a bit like Google Now, the predictive feed of everything you probably want to know about right now, except fully focused on music. Think of it as a super-smart, hyper-personalized set of radio station presets. Just open the app, tap one, and go.

To do all this, the Play Music team is tapping into the full Google Data Machine for the first time. It’s choosing playlists by looking at the music you’ve listened to before, of course, but also your search history, your YouTube plays, even what’s in your email and calendar. It considers that data alongside things like time of day, location (a bar is different from a library is different from your office), the weather, and more. So you like classical at work, but you need a boost because it’s raining and you’ve been in meetings all day, plus it’s almost time to get to the gym? Play Music might show you Epic Movie Scores, followed by your favorite workout jams.
------------

Moley Robotic Chef

Forbes reports: [edited]

In 2018, Moley will launch the world’s first integrated cooking robot — a robotic kitchen that has access to a number of famous chefs and their recipes. And it will clean up after itself as well.

Two articulated robotic motion capture systems record each movement of the master chef. Among the hundred dishes included in the beta version is Tim Anderson’s crab bisque, a particularly difficult recipe that requires striking the right balance between tomatoes, crabmeat and spices. It took Anderson five attempts to make this soup with the motion capture system.

Once the movements have been recorded, the user can choose the number of portions, type of cuisine, dietary restrictions, calorie count, desired ingredients, cooking method, chef, etc. from the recipe library, before placing pre-packaged containers of measured, washed and cut ingredients on designated spots, and pressing 'start'.

Price: $92,000.
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Microsoft Surface Studio

Released date, early 2017.

Full specifications here

Review by illustrator Gabe at Penny Arcade here
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Iceland taps into energy of molten magma

New Scientist reports: [edited]

Drilling into hot rocks to tap geothermal energy is one thing. Drilling deep enough to tap the energy from magma oozing into volcanoes is quite another, offering a massive increase in the potential to exploit Earth’s inner heat.

That is the task of a rig now drilling 5 kilometres into the rugged landscape of old lava flows in Reykjanes, at the south-west corner of Iceland. Drilling began on 12 August. By the end of the year, the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) hopes to have created the hottest hole in the world, hitting temperatures anywhere between 400 and 1000 °C.

At that depth, pressures are more than 200 times atmospheric levels. The consortium of energy companies and researchers behind the project expects the water to be in the form of “supercritical steam”, which is neither liquid nor gas and holds much more heat energy than either.

A well that can successfully tap into such steam could have an energy capacity of 50 megawatts, compared to the 5 of a typical geothermal well, says Albertsson. This would mean some 50,000 homes could be powered, versus 5,000 from a single well.
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Nintendo Switch

The Guardian reports: [edited]

Nintendo has unveiled its new console, the Nintendo Switch, which will be released in March 2017.

The console is a hybrid machine, half portable and half traditional console.

The device, which takes games loaded on cartridges, can be used as a traditional console like a PS4 or Xbox One, with the machine docked with the TV and a wireless controller, called the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, used to play games on it.

But it can also be used in a number of portable modes. The main body, which has a screen, can be undocked from the hub and carried away. Owners can then either attach controllers (called “Joy-Cons”) to its side, and use it like a portable games console – think a massive PS Vita – or prop up the screen and use the wireless controllers instead.

A second type of wireless controller allows owners to dock the two mini controllers to either side of a wireless body, and play using that. The Joy-Cons are included; the Pro Controller is an optional accessory.
------------

BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 Concept

SFGATE reports: [edited]

The BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 motorcycle is the latest incarnation of BMW's Vision Next series, which celebrates 100 years of the German brand with forward-looking concept vehicles from Rolls-Royce, Mini, and BMW.

It's a bike that has self-balancing systems to keep it upright both when standing and in motion. Several systems — one BMW calls a "Digital Companion," which offers riding advice and adjustment ideas to optimise the experience, and one called "The Visor," which is a pair of glasses that span the entire field of vision and are controlled by eye movements — correlate to return active feedback about road conditions to the rider while adjusting the ride of the bike continuously depending on the rider's driving style.

It also uses a "flexframe" that's nubile enough to allow the bike to turn without the joints found on today's motorcycles. The idea is that when a rider turns the handlebar, it adjusts the entire frame to change the direction of the bike; at low speeds only a slight input is required, while at high speeds it needs strong input to change course.
------------

Playstation VR

Trusted Reviews has published a 10/10 review of Sony's recently released virtual reality goggles.

Snippets follow:

"Priced at £349.99, it’s significantly cheaper than the Oculus Rift (£549) and HTC Vive (£759)."

"PlayStation VR is simply the best virtual reality headset you can buy right now. It’s cheap while not compromising on performance and quality. The headset is simply stunning and incredibly comfortable to wear, and the games already available are some of the best VR experiences I’ve ever played."

"Compared to the Oculus Rift it offers a far more comfortable gaming experience at a much lower price point. Against the Vive it may not offer the level of detail and immersion, but is close and doesn’t require the installation of additional sensors in your home and will not demand as much space for many games, either."

"I was so excited about virtual reality, but this was replaced with frustration the longer I tried to use the Oculus Rift. Now? I couldn’t be more enthused, and it’s all thanks to PSVR."
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Elbo Chair – Designed With The Help Of Algorithms

Wired reports: [edited]

THE ELBO CHAIR is unusual piece of furniture.Arthur Harsuvanakit and Brittany Presten of Autodesk’s generative design lab created the chair, but they didn’t design it.

Harsuvanakit and Presten collaborated with Dreamcatcher, Autodesk’s generative design CAD system. They fed the software a digital, 3-D model of a chair inspired by Hans Wegner’s iconic Round Chair and the Lambda Chair, from the design studio Berkeley Mills. Then, they stipulated how much weight the chair must support and insisted that the arms clear a human body. With that, Dreamcatcher started iterating.

The software churned out hundreds of designs, optimising as it went. It shaved dead weight and adjusted joint placement to improve load-bearing abilities, creating thinner, more intricate structures. “It gets bonier as the iterations go higher,” Harsuvanakit says. “It’s cool to let it go too far — some of them look like bug skeletons to me.” Every so often, he and Presten would pick a design, and the software would propagate a new lineage based on their selection.

Harsuvanakit calls the Elbo a collaboration between human and machine. Dreamcatcher might spin out solutions a designer might not think of, but at a certain point the human mind overrides the algorithm. The look and feel of the final object did not originate in the designer’s mind, but it requires his sign-off.

The Elbo is CNC-milled from wood. This posed new challenges. Dreamcatcher’s materials library doesn’t include wood so Harsuvanakit and Presten designated 'nylon', which Harsuvanakit says is the most suitable ringer for walnut wood.

The final design performs well. The Elbo has 18 percent less material than the hybrid model the designers started with, and shows fewer signs of stress in its joints.
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Sisyphus Tables

Kickstarter reports: [edited]

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a mountain for all eternity*. In my art, Sisyphus is a kinetic sculpture that rolls a ball through sand, forever creating and erasing beautiful patterns.

I have been creating Sisyphus sculptures for nearly 20 years, and have large, 3-meter diameter permanent installations in Switzerland, Germany and Australia. Over time I have come to view Sisyphus as more than a kinetic art piece: it is an instrument. As a musical instrument plays songs, Sisyphus plays paths.

My goal with this Kickstarter is to get Sisyphus into people's homes for them to enjoy as both furniture and art, but also, to inspire a community of composers to write ’music‘ for it.

Remaining pledge prices for 2 foot diameter tables start at $795.

*In Greek mythology Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra (Corinth). He was punished for his self-aggrandising deceitfulness by being condemned to roll an immense boulder up a hill, watch it come back to hit him, and then repeating the procedure again for eternity [ed].
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Toyota ‘Kirobo Mini’ Robot Baby

Fortune reports: [edited]

Toyota has unveiled a doe-eyed palm-sized robot, dubbed Kirobo Mini, designed as a synthetic baby companion in Japan.

Toyota’s venture aims to tap a demographic trend that has put Japan at the forefront of ageing among the world’s industrial nations.

“He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated baby, which hasn’t fully developed the skills to balance itself,” said Fuminori Kataoka, Kirobo Mini’s chief design engineer. “This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connection.”

Toyota plans to sell Kirobo Mini, which blinks its eyes and speaks with a baby-like high-pitched voice, for 39,800 yen (£300) in Japan next year. It comes with a cradle that doubles as its baby seat designed to fit in car cup holders.
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Bicycle Packaging Idea

Cycling Weekly reports: [edited]

Bicycles in big cardboard boxes have a tendency to get dropped, bashed or crushed by delivery companies, which spurred Dutch manufacturer Vanmoof into action to find a solution. Instead of putting a picture of a bike on the box they printed a picture of a large flatscreen TV instead and saw instances of delivery damage drastically reduce.

“No matter who was doing the shipping, too many of our bikes arrived looking like they’d been through a metal-munching combine harvester. It was getting expensive for us, and bloody annoying for our customers,” creative director Bex Rad wrote on the company’s blog.

“Earlier this year our co-founder Ties had a flash of genius. Our boxes are about the same size as a (really really reaaaally massive) flatscreen television. Flatscreen televisions always arrive in perfect condition. What if we just printed a flatscreen television on the side of our boxes?

“And just like that, shipping damage to our bikes dropped by 70–80%.”

Thanks to Conrad Gempf for the link.
Image via: Twitter/@jasongay
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Variable Fonts

Adobe Typekit Blog reports: [edited]

Jointly developed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe, a variable font is “a single font file that behaves like multiple fonts”. A single font file gaining an infinite flexibility of weight, width, and other attributes without also gaining file size.

The OpenType font file specification now includes a new technology: OpenType Font Variations, which allows type designers to interpolate a font’s entire glyph set or individual glyphs along up to 64,000 axes of variation (weight, width, etc.), and define specific positions in the design space as named instances (“Bold”, “Condensed”, etc.).

For fonts to actually show up anywhere, a rendering engine has to make typesetting and rasterisation calculations. Rendering engines are complex, and will need to be developed before Variable Fonts become viable, along with browsers and design software to support the rendering engine.
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iPhone 7 Plus Camera Review

Austin Mann reports: [edited]

I’m writing from deep in the Nyungwe rain forest in southwest Rwanda. We’ve been tracking gorillas in the north, boating Lake Kivu in the west, and running through tea plantations in the south — all with the iPhone 7 Plus in hand.

Alternating between wide (28mm) and telephoto (56mm) lenses has fundamentally changed the way I see and shoot with my iPhone, including landscapes, wildlife, and people. The 2x zoom is an especially great upgrade for portraiture.

It works exactly as I hoped. It is super quick to switch between lenses, even while you are rolling video.

In terms of quality, I found the the 2x zoom lens to be equally as sharp as the iPhone wide-angle. However, I do not recommend the digital zoom beyond 2x. The quality of digital zoom degrades quickly and I find it unusable for photography (although it’s actually kind of nice as an animal spotting tool).

The 2x works in ALL modes (photo, video, time-lapse, slo-mo, and even pano).

The iPhone 7 features a completely redesigned camera system with a faster f/1.8 lens which leads to better auto focus, a better ability to freeze motion, and shallower depth-of-field. I also noticed an improvement in the the dynamic range of the sensor.
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Budnitz Model E

Budnitz Bicycles reports: [edited]

Budnitz Model E is the lightest electric bicycle in the world (13kg). The twin-tube single-arc cantilever frame is crafted from 3AL 2.5V titanium alloy.

Geometry is tuned for exceptional lateral stability, minimising energy loss as you pedal. It flexes in just the right places to absorb the shock of gravel, curbs and rough pavement without a clunky front suspension. Also available in 4130 Cro Moly Steel.

Model E pairs a Gates Carbon Belt Drive with a Zehus Bike+ 250W electric rear hub. Motor, sensors, and 30V L-ion 160Wh battery are sealed within the high polish aluminium rear hub. The entire drivetrain is free of oil, completely protected against rain, grit and road debris and virtually maintenance free.

It provides electric assist up to 15 MPH for a range of 20-100 miles. Coast downhill or pedal backwards to return power to the hub. Use bluetooth interface to control multiple modes and power output. Integrated slope sensors offer more support on hills and a hub locking feature adds additional anti-theft security.

Price: from $3,950 to frankly exorbitant
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Néit Smart Collapsible Hard Case Luggage

'Early Bird' prices start at £149.
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Shaper Origin

Wired reports: [edited]

The Shaper Origin is built to take the mystery — and most of the skill — out of cutting shapes from a piece of wood. Grab Origin by the handles, place it on a piece of wood, and start tracing along the edges of the shape on Origin’s touchscreen. The drill bit will automatically correct for your wobbly, inexperienced hands.

About the size and heft of a toaster, Origin is one part augmented-reality machine and one part robot. When you place it on a surface, it takes a picture of its surroundings. Removable strips of tape covered in domino-like markings help it get its bearings. As you move the tool, it refers to the picture and tape to keep track of its location. Veer off the path you are tracing and it will automatically stop cutting.

Ships next year for around $1,500.

More information available here.


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Samsung Galaxy Note 7

Business Insider UK reports: [edited]

The Note 7 is made from two identical pieces of curved glass fused together with a metal band, making it feel thinner and lighter than it actually is. However, the glass on the back is a magnet for scratches. The Note 7 can survive under a few feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

Although the Note 7 has a larger screen than the iPhone Plus (5.7 inches versus 5.5-inch), it is smaller, making it feel more comfortable in your pocket and even better in your hand.

This year's model has an improved S Pen with a sensitive tip that feels more natural to write with. There's also a new feature that lets you grab portions of videos and turn them into GIFs. The camera is the best smartphone camera yet.

Battery life is excellent, enough to get you through more than a day. It also comes with wireless charging, which works with any standard wireless charger. You can also enable fast charging if you use one of Samsung's charging plugs or wireless charging pads.

The iris scanner is better in theory than in practice. Though more secure, it's an impractical way to unlock your phone, and it doesn't work well in bright sunlight.

Another weakness is the software. Samsung makes big modifications to Android, which often gums up the experience. Samsung has a horrible record of updating its software, and there's no guarantee you'll be getting the new Note features a year from now.

The Note 7 comes with 64 gigabytes of storage, with the option to get a free 256 GB memory card when you buy the phone.

Price: £719
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China Launches Quantum Communications Satellite

Tech Crunch reports: [edited]

China has launched the world’s first quantum communications satellite.

Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), named Micius after the philosopher, lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center into a sun-synchronous 500km orbit.

QUESS is an experiment in the deployment of quantum cryptography. Inside QUESS is a crystal that can be stimulated into producing two photons that are 'entangled' at a subatomic, quantum level. Entangled photons have certain aspects – polarisation, for example – that are the same for both regardless of distance; if one changes, the other changes.

The trouble is that photons are rather finicky things, and tend to be bounced, absorbed, and otherwise interfered with when traveling through fibres, air, and so on. QUESS will test whether sending them through space is easier, and whether one of a pair of entangled photons can be successfully sent to the surface while the other remains aboard the satellite.

If this is possible, the entangled photons can be manipulated in order to send information; the satellite could, for example, send binary code by inverting its photon’s polarisation, one way for 1, the other way for 0. The ground station would see its photon switching back and forth and record the resulting data. This process would be excruciatingly slow, but fast enough for, say, key creation and exchange – after which data can be exchanged securely by more ordinary means.

The critical thing about this is that there is no transmission involved, or at least not one we understand and can intercept. Whatever links the two photons is intangible and undetectable — you can’t entangle a third one to listen in, and if even if you managed to interfere with the process, it would be immediately noticed by both sides of the process, which would see unexpected changes to the photons’ states.

As you can imagine, an undetectable and perfectly secure channel for digital communications is of enormous potential value for an endless list of reasons. China is early to the game with QUESS, but they’re not the only ones playing. Other quantum satellites, though none quite so advanced, are in the ether right now, and more are sure to come. The experiments from the whole set will definitely be interesting – if anyone can find a way to explain what’s going on in them.
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Google Duo

The Wall Street Journal reports: [edited]

Duo, which is available for iOS and Android, has a single purpose: one-on-one phone video chats. There are no video filters, no group chats, no texting and no GIFs. Duo’s interface and setup are as bare bones as the app’s purpose. You sign up with just a phone number. On the main screen, there is one option. Tap “video call” to scroll or search your contact list for someone to call. That’s it.

On the most important issue — video quality — Duo performed in line with other chat apps I’ve used. The visuals were sharp over Wi-Fi and blurry over most cellular connections. Google says Duo can switch to an audio-only feed if video quality deteriorates too much, though I never ran into that scenario. Duo’s calls are encrypted end-to-end, as with some other apps.

Duo has one feature called “knock knock” that sets the app apart from its competitors. If someone calls you using Duo, a notification shows you a video preview of the caller before you pick up. Seeing a video stream of your friend waiting for you to pick up is fun, but it wasn’t a compelling enough feature for me to try to convince dozens of people I care about to download another app.

Duo can only be used on phones. I use a tablet daily, and I have laptops for work and personal use. If I want to video chat with a colleague at work or a friend while lounging on my couch with my tablet, Duo isn’t an option. Even if I wanted to convert to Duo exclusively, I’d need to keep around Hangouts and FaceTime (or both).

If you absolutely desire a stripped-down video-chat app, and think you can convince others to download one more messaging app, Duo is good enough for a look. Just don’t expect it to replace your other messaging apps.
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No Man's Sky

Trusted Reviews reports: [edited]

No Man’s Sky is a survival game. A chance to explore 18 quintillion planets, scrambling for resources, battling against an oppressive sentinel force, fighting off bounty hunters and pirates in space while discovering and naming all the phallic-looking flora and funny-looking fauna. In my first few hours with the game, it is all of this and more.

Starting on my first planet – which I later named “mine” – because it’s definitely not yours – I begin searching for minerals and materials to repair my damaged ship. Everything is new, everything is exciting. The lush red and purple landscape is awash with new experiences, chances to learn how No Man’s Sky ticks. Within an hour I have learned that Sentinels are mean, how to mine resources, learned new language, which resources are most beneficial, the fact my backpack is the size of Jiminy Cricket’s pocket, all while exploring a gorgeous new world.

No Man’s Sky broke far too frequently to consider it an anomaly. Often my game crashed while trying to warp to a new solar system, which is even more frustrating when the game has certain save points, meaning at times I’d have to go back to a space station, craft the energy cells and try and warp to the solar system once more, only for the game to crash again. The game's instability dulled my initial excitement and willingness to persevere further.

No Man’s Sky is a good game and will certainly provide everyone who plays it with something unique.

However, the fundamental gameplay isn’t deep or rewarding enough to stick around and explore many of the planets the game has to offer. With such basic combat and inventory management, it quickly wears thin and you’ll feel like you’re dragging yourself from system to system.

Available on PS4 & PC. Price £46.00
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Miniature Organic Robotic 'Ray'

Associated Press reports: [edited]

The idea of taking apart a rat's heart and transforming it into a tissue-engineered stingray first came to Kevin Kit Parker during a trip to the New England Aquarium with his daughter. Four years later, a robotic ray that swims toward light has made the cover of Science Magazine and is pushing the limits of what's possible in the design of machines powered by living cells.

It's remote-controlled, guided by a blinking blue flashlight. Each burst of blue sets off a cascade of signals through the cells, which have been genetically-engineered to respond to light. The contraction of the tissue creates a downward motion on the ray's body. When the tissue relaxes, the gold skeleton recoils — moving the fin upward again in an undulating cycle that mimics the graceful swimming of a real ray or skate.
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Transit Elevated Bus

BBC News reports: [edited]

China's long-awaited "straddling bus" ran its inaugural test in Hebei province this week. Powered by electricity, the bus is able to carry up to 300 passengers in its 72ft (21m) long and 25ft wide body.

The trial run was conducted on a 300m-long controlled track in the north-eastern city of Qinhuangdao. The vehicle is expected to reach speeds of up to 60km per hour, running on rails laid along ordinary roads. Up to four TEBs can be linked together.

"The biggest advantage is that the bus will save lots of road space," the project's chief engineer, Song Youzhou, told state-media agency Xinhua earlier this year. "The TEB has the same functions as the subway, while its cost of construction is less than one fifth of the subway," another engineer Bai Zhiming told news outlet CCTV.


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Huge Wind Turbines For Liverpool Bay

BBC reports: [edited]

State of the art wind turbines with a diameter bigger than the London Eye are being assembled at Belfast Harbour. The 32 turbines are destined for the sea off Liverpool.

Once running, they will generate enough electricity for a city twice the size of Belfast - about 230,000 homes.

At peak operation each turbine can produce the same amount of energy in one day as contained in 22,600 barrels of oil.
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Glif Redux

Studio Neat reports: [edited]

Almost 6 years ago, we launched the Glif, a tripod mount for the iPhone 4, on Kickstarter.

The landscape for smartphone photography has changed dramatically since we launched the original Glif. With each successive smartphone, the camera is getting more and more incredible. The smartphone has become a legitimate tool, for photographers, filmmakers, and mobile journalists. Our goal is to create the best tripod mount for smartphones. We are focusing on three areas...

1: An innovative quick release mechanism
The quick release lever, when opened, allows the jaws to move freely, making it easy to quickly load or remove your device. When you close the lever, it automatically tightens around your device, resulting in a secure connection.

2: Portrait and Landscape
With things like panoramic photos, Periscope streams, and Snapchat, smartphones have legitimised portrait orientation. The Glif has a side mounted tripod mount, which allows devices to be mounted directly in portrait orientation.

3: Extendability
The Glif has a total of 3 tripod mounts, one on the bottom, one on the side, and one on the top. These allow you to add additional accessories, like a microphone or light.

The Glif can hold devices from 58 mm to 99 mm width, from a naked iPhone SE to an iPhone 6 Plus with a really thick case on it. In all likelihood, your device will fit.

For more information visit Kickstarter.
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Birthday Weekend Playlist

Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix) - Alabama 3
Frankie Sinatra (Extended Mix) - The Avalanches
Tiny - Dinosaur Jr.
Life Itself - Glass Animals
Go! (feat. Mai Lan) - M83
Bubblegum - Mystery Jets
Red Lipstick (Radio Edit) - Skint & Demoralised
The Sound - The 1975
The Boys Of Summer - The Ataris
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 - The Flaming Lips
Flowers In The Rain - The Move
California - Semisonic
The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
I can't control myself - The Troggs
Bridget The Midget (The Queen Of The Blues) - Ray Stevens
Outtasite (Outta Mind) - Wilco
Love Sensation - Loleatta Holloway
Back to life - Soul II Soul
Give It (Radio Edit) - X-press 2 featuring Kurt Wagner
Needy Girl - Chromeo
Two Hearts - NZCA Lines
Movin On Up - M People
Fit But You Know It - Streets (Featuring The Futureheads)
Golden Days - Whitney
I Wanna Be Loved By You - Betty Boop (Helen Kane)
Brimful of Asha - Cornershop (norman cook remix)
Jeans on - David Dundas
Macarena - Los Del Rio
Who put the bomp - Viscounts
Going Down To Liverpool - Bangles
If She Knew What She Wants - Bangles
Eternal Flame - Bangles
7 Days - Craig David
Up Up And Away - Fifth Dimension
Old Town - Phil Lynott
Don't Go - Yazoo
Jilted John [vinyl version] - Jilted John
Can't Stop Movin' (Radio Edit) - Sonny J
Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley
I'm Gonna Love You Too - Blondie
You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi
Always The Last To Know - Del Amitri
It Might As Well Be You - Del Amitri
Lust for Life - Iggy Pop
Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers
Let Your Shoulder Fall - Matthew Jay
All the Way from Memphis - Mott The Hoople
Roxanne - The Police
One Of Us - Prince
Love U More - Sunscreem
I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough) - TheAudience
Break Dance / Electric Boogie (Edit) - West Street Mob
Jonny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
Shaddup You Face - Joe Dolce
More More More - Andrea True Connection
Somewhere In My Heart - Aztec Camera
Everlasting Love - Love Affair
The Free Electric Band - Albert Hammond
Mr. Brightside (original single) - The Killers
Lay All Your Love On Me - A-Teens
Re-Rewind When The Crowd Say Bo Selecta - Artful Dodger & Craig David
Boten Anna - Basshunter
Intergalactic - Beastie Boys
Ac-cen-tchu-ate The Positive - Bing Crosby & Andrew Sisters
White man in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash
I Don't Believe In Miracles - Colin Blunstone
Fill Me In - Craig David
Good Enough - Dodgy
You're More Than A Number In My Little Red Book - Drifters
You're Unbelievable - EMF
WOLD - Harry Chapin
I kissed a girl - Jill Sobule
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Single Girl - Lush
The Mighty Quinn - Manfred Mann
Come back and stay for good this time - Paul Young
Zambesi - Piranhas
Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root
This Wasn't Supposed To Happen - Sugar Cubes
That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
(Is This The Way To) Amarillo (blippy version) - Tony Christie
Here I Go Again ('87 Remix) - Whitesnake
No Woman - Whitney
The Size of a Cow - Wonder Stuff

Banana Cake by Cyan
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Google Arts & Culture App

Tech Insider reports: [edited]

Google's latest app (for iOS & Android) allows you to view and learn about works of art. You can search by historical movements or artists, or by medium, e.g. ink or watercolour.

You can search by place if you want to see the art that's available near your location, and everything you view on the app can be saved for viewing later.

If you have Google Cardboard, you can use the app to take virtual tours, and Google say they are working on image recognition functionality that will let you take a photo of a painting and the app will give you information about it.
------------

Isolate Ear Plugs

Kickstarter reports: [edited]

Isolate blocks sound from entering your ears, including bass frequencies, without any batteries.

Traditional ear plugs and defenders cannot block low frequencies from entering your ears. They make sound muffled, leaving you feeling disconnected.

With Isolate ear plugs, noise is blocked by a dense material suspended in soft memory foam to isolate it from the effects of conduction. The result is total direct noise isolation for your ears without any electronics.

Kickstarter Pledge: from £23
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Nintendo Classic Mini

The Week reports: [edited]

Nintendo has announced a miniature version of its classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

The NES Classic Mini will ship with 30 classic Nintendo titles (listed below), a NES Classic Mini controller, HDMI and USB cables.

— Balloon Fight
— Bubble Bobble
— Castlevania
— Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
— Donkey Kong
— Donkey Kong Jr.
— Double Dragon II: The Revenge
— Dr. Mario
— Excitebike
— Final Fantasy
— Galaga
— Ghosts N' Goblins
— Gradius
— Ice Climber
— Kid Icarus
— Kirby’s Adventure
— Mario Bros.
— Mega Man 2
— Metroid
— Ninja Gaiden
— Pac-Man
— Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
— StarTropics
— Super C
— Super Mario Bros.
— Super Mario Bros. 2
— Super Mario Bros. 3
— Tecmo Bowl
— The Legend of Zelda
— Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Available from 11 November, £49.99.
------------

OnePlus 3

Quartz reports: [edited]

It has 6 GB of RAM — triple what the iPhone 6S Plus ships with — and has a top-of-the-line 2.2 Ghz Snapdragon processor on board that means even the most processor-heavy apps and games should run smoothly on the OnePlus 3.

The camera is a 16-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear camera also has a mechanical and digital image stabiliser. The 1080p AMOLED display looks great, it comes with 64 GB of storage space. And it has two SIM card slots.

OnePlus runs a customised version of Android that it calls OxygenOS that’s pretty much the clean, stock Android software that Google intended it to be, with a few minor upgrades.

The OnePlus 3’s “dash” charging system allows the phone to charge to 60% capacity in 30 minutes.

Price: £329 (A 64GB iPhone 6S costs £619).
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Garia Golf Car

Wired reports: [edited]

The Mercedes-Benz Style Edition Garia Golf Car has fancy wheels and a carbon fibre roof and Mercedes describes it as “sporty and well-balanced,” which seems like a stretch. The rear spoiler doubles as a golf bag holder.

Inside, a 10.1-inch touchscreen keeps tabs on your range, (up to 50 miles), lets you select sport (!) and eco modes, and displays a course map and scorecard. A mini fridge under the leather seat keeps your beers cold, and cupholders keep them from toppling when you get up on it.
------------

Bang & Olufsen H6 Portable Headphones, Second Generation

The Verge reports: [edited]

The H6's sound is instantly engaging and gratifying. Bang & Olufsen has noticeably bumped up the bass response from the first edition while retaining impeccably clear and prominent highs. The extension in both directions is excellent — from growling sub-bass to the tinkliest of treble — and there are no recessed mids to spoil the party either. Compared to analytical or audiophile headphones, the H6s have a definite bass bump.

They are as articulate and as detailed as many of the $1,000 cans I have dotted around my home office. Consider that I have at my disposal the Focal Elear, the Beyerdynamic T5p.2, the Technics T700, and the open-back Audeze EL-8, and I'm favouring a set of cans that costs a fraction of their price. The over-ear H6s are closed-back, and they insulate external sound well, but their presentation of music doesn't feel closed at all. They have a very wide (for their class) soundstage and delightfully precise imaging. I'm getting goosebumps-inducing bass wobble from one spot and hard percussion hits from another.

Besides performance, the H6s are also rich on practicality. These headphones' design is gorgeous in a way that almost everyone can appreciate. But more importantly, the H6s are feather-light and unbelievably comfortable. No creaks, no flaws.

Price: £275
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London-Somerset-London, 9 & 10-07-16

London to Somerset, 9-07-16
Holy Macaroni - Golden Rules
Digital Love - Daft Punk
My Baby Just Cares For Me - Nina Simone
Scottish pop - Spearmint
You Little Thief - Feargal Sharkey
Luck Be A Lady (From Guys And Dolls) - Peter Gallagher & Company
Wheels - Foo Fighters
Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart) - Stylistics
Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll - Mott the Hoople
White no sugar - Clint Boon Experience
Resurrection - PPK
Nuthin' But a G'Thang - Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg
Electric - Leila K
Sunny - Boney M
Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards - Billy Bragg
Parks and Recreation - Emma Pollock
The Blow Up - Blackalicious
Action (feat. Cat Power & Mike D.) [Single Edit] - Cassius
Royals - Lorde
Freed From Desire - Gala
Wow - Beck
Hands Up - Ottawan
Hush - AM Radio
Don't You Want Me (J Pipe Mirrorball Radio Edit) - Alcazar
Stool Pigeon - Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Tiny Dancer - Tim McGraw
National Express - The Divine Comedy
Criticize - Alexander O'Neal
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
Right Beside You - Sophie B. Hawkins
House of Love (feat. Chaka Khan, Taka Boom & Mark Stevens) - FOMO
Stand Inside Your Love - Smashing Pumpkins
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend - Her Space Holiday
Star Wars Cantina - Richard Cheese
Lily the Pink - Scaffold
As Our Witness - Piers Baron
Days Are Gone - HAIM
Take On Me (techno remix) - a-ha
Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight) - Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group
Boogie On Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder
Far and Beyond - Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Somerset to London, 10-07-16
C Moon - Paul McCartney & Wings
Kiss me - Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy
Call it Love - Poco
Wrapped Up In Books - Belle and Sebastian
I Can't Wait - Stevie Nicks
You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me - New Seekers
Hotel California - SkaDaddyZ
Rubber Ducky (german techno mix) - Sesame Street
A Good Man Is Hard To Kill - Beulah
Carnival - The Cardigans
Love Shack - The B-52's
Boy from School (Radio Edit) - Hot Chip
Good Looking Woman - Joe Dolan
It's All Been Done - Barenaked Ladies
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher - Jackie Wilson
Valerie (alt) - Amy Winehouse
Rama Lama Ding Dong - The Edsels
Get Dancin' - Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes
Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah) - White Denim
Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz
All around my hat - Steeleye Span
Ding Dong Song - Gunter
Unconditional - The Bravery
Three Small Words (Movie Theme Song) - Josie and the Pussycats
Rip It Up - Orange Juice
The Riddle - Gigi D'Agostino
Perfect 10 - The Beautiful South
I Really Like You (Bleachers Remix) - Carly Rae Jepsen
I Am Chemistry - Yeasayer
House Of Love (Pedigree Mix) - East 17
I Can't Go Back To Savoury Now - John Shuttleworth
Sweet About Me (2010 version) - Gabriella Cilmi
I Wanna Dance with somebody - Whitney Houston
Misfit - Amy Studt
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne (St. Etienne)
Do The Hucklebuck - Coast to Coast
Lucky Number - Lene Lovich
The Things We Do For Love - 10cc
I Think We're Alone Now (techno) - Tiffany
Take Me Back to Your House (feat. martina sorbara) - Basement Jaxx
Rubber Ducky - Sesame Street
Singularity - New Order
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Hold Me Now (Radio Edit) - The Polyphonic Spree
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (From Company B) - The Puppini Sisters
There's your trouble - Dixie Chicks
Take It On the Run - REO Speedwagon
Like Clockwork - The Boomtown Rats
------------

Universal Flash Storage (UFS)

Samsung reports: [edited]

Samsung Electronics has unveiled the industry’s first removable memory cards based on the JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension Standard. Coming in a wide range of storage capacities including 256, 128, 64 and 32 GB.

It provides more than five times faster sequential read performance compared to that of a typical microSD card, reading sequentially at 530 megabytes per second (MB/s) which is similar to the sequential read speed of the most SATA SSDs. It transfers a 5GB, Full-HD movie in approximately 10 seconds.
------------

Google My Activity

The Washington Post reports: [edited]

A new tool called My Activity allows you to view the information Google is stockpiling about you — and delete things you'd rather it forget.

My Activity shows you what Google has saved about your online activities going back as far as Google has been tracking them. You'll probably be prompted to enter your Google password, after this you will see a chronological list of things you've done using Google's services — the searches you've made, videos you've watched on YouTube, and so on (assuming you haven't already used Google's privacy controls to block the collection of certain information).

You can even search through the data trove to look up a specific record or activity Google has saved.

If you don't want Google remembering a particular search, find the record you want to delete, click on the three vertical dots on the right end of the record and select the delete option.

You can also delete things in bulk by clicking on the three dot menu at the top of the timeline, choose "Delete activity by" and selecting a date range to erase on the next page. If you want an entirely blank slate, opt for the "All Time" option.
------------

Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope

The Verge reports: [edited]

China has finished the installation of the world's largest radio telescope. The last of the telescope's 4,450 triangular panels was fitted into the dish this weekend, ahead of the telescope's planned launch in September. It is the size of 30 soccer fields, and has taken over five years and $180 million to build. It is nearly twice as big as the next largest radio telescope — the 300-meter-wide Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

"The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life," said Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences — the organisation that built the telescope.
------------

ICE Full Fat 26FS Offroad Trike

ICE Trikes reports: [edited]

Make easy work of challenging terrain on the ICE Full Fat. This expedition-tough trike rolls over mud, sand, snow and rough trail, giving you greater freedom to cycle wherever, whenever.

ICE Full Fat trikes have a wide range of options, including suspension, wheel type, and components. All trikes are built individually to order, so you can specify your perfect trike.

Price: from £4,000
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Pleurobot

BBC reports: [edited]

Scientists in Switzerland have created a robotic salamander that mimics the gait of the ancient amphibian in great detail.
The Pleurobot can walk, crawl and even swim underwater.

The team at EPFL in Lausanne used x-ray video of a salamander to track 64 points along its skeleton as it walked and swam.
They used that data to build Pleurobot using 3D-printed bones, motoriSed joints and a 'nervous system' made of electronic circuitry.

The researchers hope that by replicating the salamander's movement, the robot amphibian can teach them more about the interplay between the spinal cord and the body in vertebrates, and so aid development of therapies and neuroprosthetics for paraplegic patients and amputees.
------------

SpotMini

Boston Dynamics reports: [edited]

SpotMini is a new smaller version of the Spot robot, weighing 55 lbs dripping wet (65 lbs if you include its arm.)

SpotMini is all-electric (no hydraulics) and runs for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing. SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built.

It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs. These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation. SpotMini performs some tasks autonomously, but often uses a human for high-level guidance.
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Biodegradable Adhesive Fixes Vascular Holes

Wired reports: [edited]

Every year thousands of babies are born with congenital heart defects. These small vascular holes need to be repaired to allow the child to live normally. There’s currently no harmless way of doing this – so Maria Pereira created a glue that can stick the chambers of the heart back together.

Pereira’s biodegradable adhesive can be activated by light. Unlike other glues, which get washed away by water, it can be placed in wet environments such as the heart, where it degrades slowly by surface erosion mechanisms. "Surgery is evolving from open surgery to minimally invasive," says Pereira. "We believe that this can be a tool to enable surgeons to change how surgery is done."

The glue is being brought to market by Gecko Biomedical. The company is currently testing it in clinical trials and hopes to introduce it in 2017.
------------

Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III

Digital Photography Review have published a in-depth review of Sony's premium super-zoom 'bridge' camera.

Snippets from the conclusion follow:

"The superb quality of the RX10 III's lens is quite a technical achievement, to say nothing of the overall feature set Sony has included as well. Whether you're zoomed in or zoomed out, focused close or focused on infinity, you'll be impressed with the sharpness offered by this 24-600mm equivalent F2.4-4 zoom lens."

"It's not perfect, that much is certain. It's not a 'caught moment' camera, or a sports shooting machine. But for outright versatility - for when I need 600mm – for when I need really good 4K in a compact package - the RX10 III makes a lot of sense."

"The autofocus system is contrast-detect only, meaning you can expect some hunting, especially at the longer end of the zoom. And while it aced our bike test for a steadily approaching subject - meaning depth tracking is quite good - the reality is that the camera too often goes into a long hunt if the AF point suddenly encounters a low contrast target - meaning missed shots."

"Overall, we've found the RX10 III the most well-rounded all-in-one bridge camera on the market today when it comes to size, feature set and image quality. But, while the RX10 III and its excellent lens might well be worth the price of admission for those that need it, continued ergonomic and user-interface shortcomings keep it from earning our top award."

Price: £1,499
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Sunway TaihuLight 93-Petaflop Supercomputer

Top500 reports: [edited]

A new Chinese supercomputer has captured the number one spot of supercomputers. With a Linpack mark of 93 petaflops, the system outperforms the former TOP500 champ, Tianhe-2, by a factor of three. The machine is powered by a new ShenWei processor and custom interconnect, both of which were developed locally, ending any remaining speculation that China would have to rely on Western technology to compete effectively in the upper echelons of supercomputing.

TaihuLight is currently up and running at the National Supercomputing Center in the city of Wuxi, a manufacturing and technology hub, a two-hour drive west of Shanghai. The system will be used for various research and engineering work, in areas such as climate, weather & earth systems modelling, life science research, advanced manufacturing, and data analytics.
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AuRoSS Robotic Librarian

c|net reports: [edited]

Every job has its more boring components. In libraries, one of those jobs is scanning the shelves, looking for missing and misplaced books, and taking stock of what's available. For human workers, this is time-consuming, repetitive and boring.

The autonomous robotic shelf-scanning platform, or AuRoSS, is in development by the Institute for Infocomm Research of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research. It uses laser mapping to navigate a library, and RFID tags placed on books to scan the collection. It can work at night, tracking the shelves in real-time to locate lost and missing books, with 99 percent scanning accuracy, even with curved shelves.
------------

Bose QuietComfort 35 vs Sennheiser Momentum Wireless

gizmag reports: [edited]

Bose's new QuietComfort 35 headphones build on the outstanding active noise cancellation in its wired predecessors, while adding Bluetooth. We've been testing the freshly untethered cans to see how they compare to the best-in-class Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless.

The QC35 has the same design as its predecessors. They feel very comfortable and lightweight. The headphones have a built-in battery, charging via microUSB, Bose is quoting battery life of 20 hours.

Compared to the wireless Momentums, the audio of the wireless Bose QC35s holds up surprisingly well. We'd still give the edge to the Sennheisers, but not by as wide a margin as expected. Listening wirelessly to a variety of Tidal lossless tracks with flat EQ, the Momentums had a slightly wider soundstage and perhaps a hair more punch in the bass and nuance in the highs. But it's very, very close – I could listen to either pair on a transcontinental flight and my ears would be extremely happy.

The gap in noise cancellation is wider than the gap in audio quality. I listened to both headphones with a vacuum cleaner running a few feet away, both with audio playing and no audio playing, and in both cases the vacuum noise was almost completely snuffed out by the Bose. The noise was still muffled, but much more audible, on the Sennheisers. The difference was just as pronounced swapping out the vacuum cleaner for a TV show playing in the same room.

Price: Bose: £289.95 - Sennheiser: £379.95
------------

Olympus Stylus Tough TG-Tracker

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The TG-Tracker takes 8MP stills with an ultra-wide 204˚ view F2.0 lens and provides 4K/30p and 1080/60p video recording options.

The unit is rated to be waterproof to 30m/100ft, shockproof from 2.1m/7ft, freeze-proof to -10C/+14F and crushproof to 100kgf/220lbf.

Also provided are a 1.5" flip-out LCD and a built-in lamp with 30 and 60 lumen settings. The tracking features include GPS, barometric pressure sensor, temperature sensor, compass and an accelerometer. A pistol-style grip is bundled with the camera to help keep shots steady.

The camera syncs with Olympus' Image Track app via Wi-Fi to display data logs including the user's route and elevation, and can display detailed summaries of excursions including total elapsed time, distance travelled, average speed and minimum/maximum elevation, among other data points. Images and video can be transferred to the user's smartphone using the app.

The Olympus Stylus Tough TG-Tracker is due to hit retailers in June for $349.99 in green and black body options.
------------

Samsung Launching Postage Stamp-sized 512GB SSD

Mashable reports: [edited]

Samsung has announced it will be launching a 512GB solid-state drive measuring 20 x 16 x 1.5mm.

The PM971 is installed directly on the motherboard. According to the Samsung, this drive can download a 5GB HD movie in about 6 seconds with read and write speeds of about 1.5GBps and 900MBps.

It weighs 1g.
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Type Terms

Creative Bloq reports: [edited]

Typography is a complex subject, with a lot of terminology to get your head around.

Type Terms is an animated resource to help you get to grips with the important elements of typography.

Type Terms was created by Dan Heywood. "I wanted to combine typography with web design and create an animated experience that would give me the chance to experiment with SVGs and CSS animations. The aim was to create something that would describe each term visually so that even the newest of designers could understand them."
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